Warriors lock play‑in spot

Golden State’s regular season is no longer about chasing sixth place. With three games left, the Warriors can get to 40 wins at best, and that still leaves them no higher than ninth in the Western Conference, which locks them into the 9-versus-10 play-in game. (sportingnews.com) That is the hard version of the National Basketball Association’s back door. The seventh seed plays the eighth seed for one playoff spot, while the ninth seed plays the tenth seed in an elimination game, and the winner of that then has to beat the loser of 7-versus-8 for the last spot. (nba.com) Right now the West play-in bracket has Phoenix at No. 7, Los Angeles Clippers at No. 8, Portland at No. 9, and Golden State at No. 10. If those positions hold, the Warriors would have to win at Portland first and then beat the Suns-Clippers loser. (nba.com) The calendar is tight too. The regular season ends on April 12, the SoFi National Basketball Association Play-In Tournament runs from April 14 through April 17, and the full playoffs start on April 18. (nba.com) That leaves Steve Kerr choosing between two bad options in the final week. He can push veterans like Stephen Curry and Draymond Green for seeding that no longer exists, or he can treat the last games like tune-ups and try to arrive healthy for two win-or-go-home nights. (sportingnews.com) Health is not a small footnote here. Curry just returned from a 27-game absence with a right knee injury and scored 29 points in 26 minutes against Houston on April 5, which means Golden State is balancing urgency against the risk of overloading its most important player days before the play-in. (espn.com) The standings explain why this feels harsher than a normal tenth seed. Oklahoma City, San Antonio, the Los Angeles Lakers, Denver, Houston, and Minnesota have already clinched the West’s six automatic playoff spots, leaving Phoenix, the Clippers, Portland, and Golden State boxed into the mini-bracket. (cbssports.com) So the Warriors’ next week is simple in the cruelest possible way. They do not need one big game anymore; they need two straight, against teams above them, on a schedule with almost no recovery time, just to earn a first-round series with the top-seeded Thunder. (nba.com)